Coming into Saturday night's game against Princeton, Brown's men's soccer team appeared to be on an unstoppable run towards a second-straight Ivy League championship. Ranked No. 21 in the country, the Bears (4-3-2 overall, 1-1-0 Ivy League) went into the match with a eight-game Ivy League unbeaten streak dating back to November of 2002. This included a 3-2 win over Columbia last Saturday.
The Tigers (5-2-3, 1-0-1), on the other hand, were coming off two games that saw an anemic offense unable to score.
Against all odds, however, the Tigers slew the Bears, 3-2, before the home fans at Lourie-Love Field. In the process, they showed that they will be a force in the Ivy League race this year.
In the game, Princeton found itself down both 1-0 and 2-1 before rallying to victory.
"The team showed that it has a big heart," senior captain Teddy Van Beuren said. "By coming from behind twice, we proved that we are going to be hard to beat."
The Tigers came out strong at the beginning of the game, controlling the ball and keeping most of the action in Brown's half of the field. Princeton had a near-miss when Van Beuren shot the ball off the crossbar in the eighth minute.
But it was the Bears who struck first at the 12:58 mark. Having earned a free kick deep in Princeton's territory on the left side, forward Marcos Romaneiro sent an arching cross into the box. Forward Andrew Daniels, who was running in from the right side, volleyed the ball out of the air and past senior goalkeeper Erik White.
The game then settled down, with both teams squandering opportunities.
The Tigers took seven shots in the half, but failed to score. At 34:20, junior forward Darren Spicer layed the ball off for senior midfielder Ryan Rich, who hit a cannon shot that was stopped by Brown goalkeeper Chris Gomez.
The Bears also played extremely aggressively at the end of the half, committing five fouls in the final fifteen minutes of the half. Defender Laurent Manuel earned a yellow card after a hard foul.
Tigers' offense awakens
At the half, the Tigers' found themselves down a goal, and unable to score in the last five halves they had played. If they were to win, something had to happen offensively.
"We knew we had to make a more concerted effort to move the ball up the field," junior midfielder Ben Young said. "We also added another forward."
Coming in at that second forward position was junior Adrian Melville, a substitution that proved to be a great decision by head coach Jim Barlow '91. Melville would finish the game with a goal and an assist.
In the 61st minute, Melville collected a long ball that had bounced around the top of the eighteen-yard box. He dribbled in towards the goal, setting up a showdown with the keeper. Gomez had no chance to make a save when Melvilled drilled the ball into the back-left corner to even the score.
Brown would respond, as Romaneiro went down in the box in the 58th minute, earning junior defender Neil Chaudhuri a yellow card. Romaneiro then converted the penalty kick, although White managed to get a hand on it.
This lead would prove to be ephemeral, however, in the face of the Princeton onslaught. Just four minutes later at 61:59, Melville crossed the ball from the left side into the box to a sliding Young, who managed to get a foot on the ball for the equalizer.
Game-winning goal
With momentum on their side, the Tigers continued to press the attack. Their efforts were rewarded in the 79th minute when Spicer scored the game-winner off a cross by Young from the right side. After the ball had crossed the goalline, a Brown defender tried in vain to kick the ball out of the goal.
The Tigers then proceeded to hold Brown in check, with White coming up with several key saves. Overall White finished the day with five saves including two in the last ten minutes. For Brown, Gomez finished with three saves.
The end of the game was marred by controversy with the clock. The Bears were awarded a free kick just outside the eighteen yard-box with four seconds left, but the clock ticked down to one second and had to be reset. Then, on the free kick, the clock started too early, resulting in a drop-ball with two seconds remaining.
The win left Princeton with a solid Ivy League record, good for third in the conference.
"The league is always so competitive," Van Beuren said, "but this year we should definitely compete for the title."
The Tigers continue their season tomorrow at Seton Hall before traveling to New York next Saturday to take on Columbia.
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